Engaging in the sport of politics

It is not uncommon for Russian athletes to be engaged in politics after their sport career. Marat Safin, a former tennis prodigy, is running for the Duma on the ticket of the United Russia party in the Nizhny Novgorod Region. Source: ITAR-TASS

Former world-class athletes are hoping their skills will pay off as they play the game of politics.

After
being a Russian tennis queen, Anna Chakvetadze wants to be a queen in politics.
Chakvetadze won eight WTA tournaments during her career, foreshadowing the brood
of girls that later invaded the professional tennis circuit. A former world
number 5, Chakvetadze impressed everyone by reaching the finals of the
Wimbledon junior tournament when she was 17. In 2007, she reached the U.S. Open finals. But
a long series of injuries followed, and finally in 2011, she decided to give up
tennis and focus on winning election to the Duma. Chakvetadze will be running
as a member of the Right Cause party, which has suffered in the polls since the
loss of its leader Mikhail Prokhorov, steel tycoon and owner of NBA’s New
Jersey Nets, in September. “It is a great challenge for me, I have chosen Right
Cause because it is a young party with innovative ideas,” said Chakvetadze.

It’s
not an unusual path for retired Russian athletes. Marat Safin, another former tennis
prodigy who is currently the vice president of the Russian Tennis Federation
and a member of the Olympic Committee, is also running for one of the 450 seats
in the lower chamber of the Russian parliament.

“I have
many ideas to offer in the economic and social fields. And I may be the
prettiest boy in the Duma, but only because the others are all over 60,” joked Safin at the end of
the Chengdu tournament, a competition for former starts of the ATP. The former
rebel and world number one retired in 2009 after victories in two grand slam
tournaments. He is running for the Duma on the ticket of the United Russia
party in the Nizhny Novgorod Region.

His
candidacy has one unusual supporter: Pete Sampras, the American legend who lost
the 2000 U.S. Open finals to then 20-year-old Safin. “In 20 years, Marat will
be the resident of Russia,
I am sure,” Sampras said recently. “He is smart, self-confident, and speaks
foreign languages perfectly. I think he will do well for his region.
Furthermore, he has a great passion for politics; he will be a resource for his
country.”

Safin
may join the colony of former sporting champions who belong to the United
Russia party, trying to put at their country’s service the credibility and
prestige accumulated during their sporting careers. Among them are Anton
Sikharulidze, who won a gold medal in ice skating at the 2002 Olympic games in
Salt Lake City and a bronze medal at the 1998 Nagano games; Alina Kabaeva, gold
medallist in rhythmic gymnastics in Athens in 2004, Svetlana Zhurova, speed
skating champion from the 2006 Turin games and world champion heavyweight boxer
Nikolai Valuev.